These days, pipeline recruiting is proving to be much more efficient and productive than traditional hiring. One of the hard truths of running a business is never knowing exactly when one of your employees is going to say farewell. Much like having a business continuity plan in place to secure your company’s infrastructure, having a backup plan to fill certain positions will allow your company to keep on performing and stay balanced.

Often times, the way in which we try to connect with candidates and/or job seekers can be a bit hasty and forced, but pipelines act as the bridge between meaningful relationships and positive results. You won’t get a good result unless you put in the conscious effort and attention into a pipeline! 

Below are five reasons why the pipeline approach is so powerful and beneficial.  

Pipelining is a win-win for everyone. Talent pipelines are a great way to build rapport and to be intentional about getting to know candidates’ career goals, plans, and ambitions. They are two-way streets; the candidate needs to know as much as they can about the company just as much as the company needs to know about the candidate. Too many times we have gotten ourselves into, or have been a witness of people getting into roles only to find out they are either overly qualified, or are not qualified enough. With strategic pipelines in place, however, this risk can be mitigated, and dare I say nonexistent!

 Hiring the best candidate is faster and painless. Recruiting top talent is more challenging today than ever before. We are currently experiencing record low unemployment rates, which is great! However, it makes recruiting a lot more challenging. Companies are going above and beyond to retain their people, especially the best ones. That’s why proactively networking with passive candidates is essential. You are being intentional about reaching out to a potential candidate and expressing a sincere interest in learning more about the them and their skills. It’s a complimentary way of connecting with a candidate and the response rates are typically very high.

 The entire hiring process is accelerated. There’s a reason people start looking for jobs three months before they plan on leaving their current role, and a big reason is that the entire interview and hiring process can take forever. When roles are filled promptly after opening them and the new hire hasn’t been properly screened, you run the risk of hiring someone unqualified. The harsh reality is that this happens, but it doesn’t have to. With pipelines, the hiring process is accelerated, but the hard part of screening the candidate and making sure he or she fits the bill is over. By the time they are hired, they feel like part of the team because the relationship has already been established. 

Great for discovering talent that is still developing. Let’s say you found someone who meets all of the personal requirements to fill the spot you are recruiting for. She’s intelligent, sharp, and admires the company. She’s got a promising career trajectory ahead of her. The only problem is that the positions you mostly recruit for require individuals with 5-7 years of experience, and she only has 2-3. You don’t want to lose site of this great candidate do you? The obvious answer is no, so what do you do? Add her to your pipeline! Stay close to her, connect over coffee every six months or so. Then, when a relevant position opens up that aligns well with her skills and interests, the process is set in motion and the interviewing process begins! Think about how this can impact your time to fill! 

Lower turnover, higher retention. The traditional hiring process seems to rush into making a decision over the right candidate. With any open position, there’s an obvious need to fill it quickly. Often times the mindset is “fill the position, now!” instead of, “find the right person, now!” Do companies want to hire the same person 20 times (by means of continually refilling the position), or would they rather proactively network with 10 people over a 6-month period, where they identify a perfect fit? With talent pipelines, the fear of hiring, firing, and refilling the position 20 times is gone because the mindset is this:

 -    This is an important job. You are an important person.

-    We work to support you and your success, so we want to make sure we get it right the first time.

-    We don’t just hire anyone. We hire people like you.

When this mentality is in place, companies experience lower turnover and higher retention because these values are strong and put into action, not just nice words that sound good together.

 By proactively recruiting candidates and keeping the line of communication open, you can cut the hiring process almost in half and the uncertainties will be brought to light and mitigated. Honesty, integrity, and compatibility lie in the depths of the pipeline, and the great thing about them is that you can make them fit your company.